Stirring the pot
The timing seems questionable: why is the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) looking into the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games now, when the whole country is riveted to the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte? As Senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano contended, was the timing of the probe a political tactic meant to intimidate him during the trial?
As chair of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc), the senator could be among those to be summoned by the NBI on alleged funding irregularities in the games held in New Clark City, Capas, Tarlac, from November to December 2019.
But given what transpired during what was meant to be a regional showcase, the real issue isn’t “why now?” It should actually be “why only now?”
The probe comes seven years after what may be described as the country’s biggest sports embarrassment—with unfinished, substandard structures, double toilets, nutrient-poor meals, deplorable accommodations, and inadequate transport facilities for athletes.
“This [probe] is not because of renewed interest. It so happened that there were documents which came to light [that] will lead us to investigate,” NBI Director Melvin Matibag said. Cayetano has denied any wrongdoing and called the NBI probe “a misfire.”
P50-million cauldron
Countered Matibag: “There was no bidding … and the P10 billion [funding] was quickly paid through congressional insertion in the General Appropriations Act.” Neither did the sports complex undergo the proper procurement process, he said, adding that the funds had yet to be liquidated. The funds included the budget for the controversial P50-million cauldron used for the SEA Games’ torch lighting that Cayetano had defended as a “work of art.”
On Wednesday, Phisgoc released a certification from the Philippine Sports Commission confirming that it has fully liquidated the P2.08 billion it received for hosting the SEA Games. Its former chief operating officer Ramon Suzara also said it was ready to cooperate with any legitimate inquiry.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority’s (BCDA) arrangement to build the National Government Administrative Center and the SEA Games facilities was “prejudicial” to the government’s interests, state auditors said, with the BCDA adding P8.5 billion for the construction of the sports facilities on top of its P4.1 billion joint venture agreement with Malaysian firm MTD Capital Berhad. This brought the project cost to P12.695 billion.
Unusual arrangement
In 2020, the Ombudsman filed graft and malversation charges against then BCDA president and current Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, along with three others involved in the joint venture. The charges were dismissed in 2021 for “insufficiency of evidence.”
Even as the project unfolded in 2019, critics had slammed the unusual arrangement of a private organizing committee handling the project and being headed by Cayetano, then Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary. The alarm bells rang even louder when the original appropriation was put under the DFA budget when it had nothing to do with sports.
With the huge amount involved, the subsequent overpricing, and unliquidated expenses, why did it take the NBI seven years to look into these anomalies?
First off, then President Rodrigo Duterte immediately cleared Cayetano of any wrongdoing, which likely intimidated authorities from pursuing the matter. Recall as well that the NBI at the time was headed by Duterte-appointee Dante Gierran, himself a controversial figure.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown in 2020 effectively pushed the simmering pot of anomalies to the back burner. An attempt by Sen. Risa Hontiveros to probe the SEA Games funding in a November 2020 privilege speech was shut down by Sen. Pia Cayetano who angrily denounced the call for accountability as a “slap in the face” of Filipino athletes.
Impeachment trial
Last week, the Cayetano siblings described the NBI probe as targeting members of the Senate minority in an attempt to take them out “one by one” in connection with the Vice President’s impeachment trial.
But the NBI stressed that its inquiry into the SEA Games was “impartial, evidence-based and grounded squarely in its mandate under the law,” a position backed by Malacañang and the justice department. Matibag also refuted claims that the probe was a threat to the senator-judges. “If no corruption was committed, then you have nothing to be afraid of,” he said.
Seven years have been too long a wait to finally demand accountability for P12 billion in public funds that could have gone into other government projects, including the health needs of a pandemic-locked population. The probe may be belated, but the NBI move affords audit and investigative bodies the opportunity to fine-tune their procedures and review policies that allow for such unscrupulous and tempting leeway.
As this case illustrates, there is no timeline, no irrevocable deadline, nor prescriptive period for rooting out corruption.
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